


Down & Running

by shyfoxes



Series: It Takes a Village [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: First Dates, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-31 02:09:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6451267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shyfoxes/pseuds/shyfoxes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of how Bokuto and Kuroo got together. </p><p>Bokuto had promised to not only pick Kuroo up but sweep him off his feet. Kuroo should have known a little better when it came to Bokuto.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Down & Running

  
“Nyegh!” Kuroo exclaimed, chopsticks jamming against another boy's.

They battled, flicking their chopsticks against each other as they both tried to take a hold of the piece of meat on the grill. Kuroo scowled from beneath his bangs, glaring at the other boy who was grinning almost menacingly at him. The other party guests glanced over at them, some laughing, half-drunk off their asses already, and other shook their heads in amusement. Yaku had immediately abandoned Kuroo when the fighting had started, and had taken Kai by the arm just as quickly. Off to the side Akaashi, a guy from Kuroo's calculus class, was squinting at them with his mouth in a fine line. He muttered something that made the boy locked in battle with Kuroo squawk, freezing.

“Oh ho ho!” Kuroo called, nabbing the piece. He quickly slid it up on his plate and backed away with a smug grin. “Better luck next time, Owl Face.”

Owl Face only grinned back harder, pride seemingly wounded but challenge blazing in his golden eyes. Kuroo felt his chest jolt as Owl Face dug his hands into his hips and leaned forward into Kuroo's personal space.

“Is that a challenge?” Owl Face taunted.

Kuroo couldn't help the flash of teeth as he lidded his eyes and took a victory bite of his prize. Owl Face only let himself look humiliated for a half a second.

“Anytime, anywhere,” Kuroo replied.

That marked the first time Kuroo and Bokuto had ever met each other, fighting over meat at a university barbeque to kick off freedom from midterms and the impending work load of the ending of the semester on the horizon. Akaashi and Yaku, of course, had gotten caught in the middle.

Not long after, Kuroo and Bokuto found themselves repeatedly bumping into each other. If the campus had seemed a bit big before, it was terribly small now. It was like Kuroo couldn't take five steps without “WAH HA HA” coming over across a crowd. He'd whipped his head around the first few times, bewildered by how someone could be so energetic at all times of the day. After a while Kuroo had learned to simply keep his head forward, and a smug grin would undoubtedly make its way to his face.

Everything had been a challenge after that. Walking to class if they were in the same building and yet not the same room. Glaring across the room of libraries. Homework finishing contests in study sessions (which Kuroo always won because Bokuto was seemingly allergic to homework). Eating faster than the other, with a disgusted scold from Akaashi who had the unfortunate luck of being ambushed in the cafeteria when he'd simply wanted to enjoy a sandwich by himself. Yaku on the other hand, had to deal with nearly being run over on his way to chemistry.  Enough had been enough after Yaku's notebook wound up in a puddle one unfortunately rainy day, where Bokuto and Kuroo were sharing an umbrella and yet still running neck and neck to the chem building.

Yaku slammed his hand against the wall he had cornered Kuroo to. He glared up at his tall friend and ignoring the height difference that had increased horribly since their first year of high school together.  It earned them a few strange stares, and someone muttering about  _kabedon_ , but Yaku had his glare set straight for Kuroo's neck.

 

“I'm going to need you and Bokuto to stop menacing the general student body with your relationship,” Yaku said.

“What relationship?” Kuroo scoffed. “We run around trying to outdo the other.”

Yaku raised his brows, eyes halved by exasperation and disbelief. Kuroo bit back a sneer of his own. Boy did this bring back great memories. Yaku shook his head, easing out of Kuroo's space a bit as he fixed Kuroo with a more critical look.

“You haven't noticed it at all then, have you?” Yaku said. “I'm guessing neither of you have.”

Kuroo's raised brow was enough of an indication for Yaku as he heaved a sigh. He'd have to contact Akaashi later. But for now, he'd at least take some of the pressure off of Akaashi and deal with half of their idiot problems himself. Yaku looked to him again.

“You're dating Bokuto, Tetsurou,” Yaku said. “You two are so obviously dating that  _neither_  of you have even realized it.”

“Impossible,” Kuroo said, waving a hand. “There's no way. We're just dudes being bros. Menacing the general student populace as you said.”

“You're a smart guy, Kuroo, top of your classes all the time. But you're also a raging idiot,” Yaku said, but not without affection. “Let me recap with you.”

Yaku pressed his back against the wall Kuroo was leaning against, and brought his hands up to count off on his fingers. He threw a sidelong glance at Kuroo.

“You two walk to classes together,” Yaku said.

“We  _race_  each other,” Kuroo corrected.

“In the beginning, yes. But let's be real, Kuroo. He walks you to your classes. You run there, but he literally has stopped trying to get to his class first because he's started dropping you off at yours first. Hell, you're sharing  _umbrellas_  now. He even waits for you outside the building so you can run and do it all over again,” Yaku said.

Kuroo mumbled under his breath, tucking his chin against his chest. Yaku huffed a little smugly.

“You hate texting and yet you text him the most. You always show up together at study sessions. You always sit together. You eat together. Yesterday you bought his lunch for him so you could disgust everyone in the cafeteria with your lame competition. You two got drunk at the last party Tendou had and were cuddling in a corner until Akaashi and I had to haul you guys back to the dorms,” Yaku continued.

“That's – we don t – Morisuke,  _shut up_ ,” Kuroo sputtered, blanching.

He racked his brain trying to figure out how to counter Yaku's reasoning. Each argument was met with a shoot down from Yaku. A splotching of heat was rising from his neck to his face, and Kuroo bent to hide his face into Yaku's hair. He received an indignant swipe for it, but otherwise his friend let him groan and complain under his breath in peace. Kuroo slid down the wall and Yaku rested his arm on the top of his head.

He bent down and thumped Kuroo on his arm, a cheshire grin on his face. “Congratulations, Kuroo, on your first boyfriend,” Yaku said.

-

Kuroo hadn't expected Bokuto to be so immediate in his response. There was no way Yaku wasn't going to spill everything to Akaashi, who pretty much knew anyway, and not have the whole thing get straight back to Bokuto. He had expected things to be a little awkward, maybe they'd take a break from each other for a day or two. But at a quarter to 8 that night, Kuroo's phone was going off like crazy. Kuroo's hands had been so sweaty he could barely type a word in before a new message was blowing up his phone. Leave it to Bokuto to be impatient when someone didn't respond within the ten seconds he expected.  

_Bokuto: **< <Hey Hey Hey Bro>>**_

_Bokuto: **< <Bro, bro I need to tell u something. BUT U CAN'T LAUGH>>**_

_Bokuto: **< <Akaashi says we've actually been dating a while uknow and it  got me thinkin>>**_

_Bokuto: **< <I mean he's not wrong, right? Akaashi's almost never wrong!!>>**_

_Bokuto: **< <So I was thinkin we should rly make this official or smthin. Go on a date with me 2morrow nite>>**_

_Bokuto:_ **_ <<I'll pick u up and evrythin and i'll totally sweep u off ur feet and all that junk>>_ **

_Bokuto:_ **_ <<Bro? Kurooo u there??>>_ **

_Bokuto:_ **_ <<I kno ur getting these!!>>_ **

_Bokuto:_ **_ <<TETSUROU I MEAN IT I WANNA KNO WHAT U THINK>>_ **

_Bokuto:_ **_ <<or r u not up to the challenge?>>_ **

Kuroo frowned at that, hitting the call button before he could think better of it. His phone slid a bit against his palm but he held it firmly to his ear. Bokuto picked up on the first ring. Kuroo could hear him fumbling and a few curses, followed by Akaashi's exasperated sighing in the background. Bokuto cleared his throat. Kuroo suddenly felt a little less nervous just hearing his stutter as he greeted him.

“ _Kuroo, you bothered to answer,”_ Bokuto teased, a hint of nervousness in his voice.

Kuroo snickered, rubbing the back of his neck. “Its not like you were giving me a chance to reply, Bo,” Kuroo said. Somewhere along the line he had picked up that nickname for the other.

“ _So,”_  Bokuto said; Kuroo could hear him lick his lip. “ _So, what do you say, Tetsu?”_

Kuroo hummed. “Challenge accepted,” Kuroo said, simply.

He winced as he pulled away from the phone. An ear shattering YAHOOO piercing through the phone as Akaashi's quiet admonishing followed after.

“ _He said yes, you know, he said yes!”_ Bokuto said, a bit muffled to Akaashi.

Kuroo blushed despite himself, but was giddy nonetheless. Yeah, he had said yes. Across the room, on the top bunk Yaku was grinning from behind his book. Kuroo ignored him in favor of trying to get Bokuto's attention again to solidify a time and place.

“ _I'll pick you up at 8 tomorrow at your dorm room! Like I said, I'll totally sweep you off your feet and then we'll go eat at that ramen shop i've been telling you about! The little hidden gem not that far off from campus?”_ Bokuto said, a mile a minute.

Kuroo laughed breathlessly. Who knew he had such a shojo side to him after?

-

At 7:54 PM Kuroo could hear Bokuto's feet pounding down the hallway of the floor of his dorm. He had spent the better part of the month with the guy and had somehow committed the sound to memory. He was barely opening the door as Bokuto came skidding to a stop. Some bunched up, wind-battered flowers were in Bokuto's fist as he held it out to Kuroo. A petal dropped down and landed across his hand as he reached to take the flowers from Bokuto.

“That pretty boy Oikawa on the volleyball team said that it'd be a good idea,” Bokuto said.

Kuroo chuckled, looking down at the ruined flowers and yet feeling his insides warm almost unbearably. He shouldered back into the dorm room to hastily stick the ruined flowers into the mouth of his water bottle on his desk.

“Thanks for the flowers, bro,” Kuroo started. “But you did promise to sweep me off my feet, y'know?”

Bokuto bounced his eyebrows. He rolled up the sleeves of his jacket. He jabbed his thumb to the emptying hallway.

“I'm a man of my word after all!” Bokuto said. “You ready?”

Kuroo pushed him out and locked the door to his room. Yaku had a study session with Kai for the night anyway. He was barely just turning back to face Bokuto when he was pulled backwards, stumbling on his feet and trying to scratch at the door handle for purchase to right himself up. He fell straight into Bokuto's arms, legs coming up to lay across one of Bokuto's forearms as his back was cushioned in the curve of Bokuto's other arm. A princess carry, Kuroo belatedly realized. Bokuto rose to his feet, seemingly unaffected by the fact that he was carrying around someone nearly as heavy as himself as if it were nothing. Bokuto looked down at him smugly, a signature brow raised in challenge.

“I said I was picking you up for our date, didn't I?” He said.

“Bokuto -” Kuroo started, getting ready to struggle to be put back on his feet. “Wait -”

“Wahooo!” Bokuto yelled, taking off down the hallway.

Kuroo tried to force the memory of his screech from his mind as Bokuto barreled through some of the other people on Kuroo's dorm, nearly bowling over Oikawa, as they stumbled into the elevator together. Bokuto skidded, hitting his shoulder against the far side of the elevator and motioning for the only other guy in the elevator to hit the ground floor button for him.

“Bokuto,” Kuroo hissed. “Put me down -”

“Not until we get there!” Bokuto cut off. “I'm going to make this the most memorable first date you've ever had.”

“I think you've done enough of tha-” Kuroo started.

The elevator lurched to a stop at the ground floor. Bokuto bounced on his feet, jostling Kuroo a bit in his arms. When the doors finally opened enough, the other boy in the elevator flattened himself against one of the walls as Bokuto took off out of the elevator and through the automatic doors of their dorm building.

From somewhere to the side Tendou Satori was hooting at Bokuto as he passed by, and Bokuto was laughing loudly thanking him. Kuroo dug his fingers into the fabric of Bokuto's shirt at the shoulders. Bokuto curled his fingers more against Kuroo's body, keeping him pressed to him. His teeth knocked together as Bokuto leapt over a stray skateboard a girl had pushed forward to jump onto before Bokuto had come out of nowhere and into her pathway. It was Shirofuku from Bokuto's literature class if he wasnt uncertain. She fist pumped at them as Bokuto barreled past.

“Don't fear, bro! I'd never drop you!” Bokuto yelled.

Kuroo sighed, despite himself, looking up at Bokuto and then at the stretch of road coming up fast outside the campus as he kept running. Kuroo grinned, readjusting himself in Bokuto's arm to sit up better. He laughed when what looked like one of their teachers yelled at them. They turned heads left and right laughing and hollering down the sidewalk and out of the campus.

-

Bokuto stumbled, legs giving out but his hold on Kuroo firm as he let his back hit the side of the food joint. He let Kuroo down before collapsing on his ass and catching his breath. He looked up wryly at Kuroo as he straightened his clothes and rolled his eyes at him.

“So, pretty good start already, right?” Bokuto said.

“Not what I was expecting,” Kuroo joked. “But yeah. Not bad at all.”

Bokuto dug his palms into his knees and hoisted himself up. He threw an arm over Kuroo's shoulders and pulled him in. Bokuto pressed their cheeks together, raising a hand in greeting to an aging man at the cash register. The old man's eyes brightened when he saw Bokuto and laughed when Bokuto introduced Kuroo. He pulled Kuroo to a seat to the side, two chairs facing each other. He let Kuroo go to his silent regret, and pulled the chair out for him.

“Sorry to say but I'm pretty broke right now,” Bokuto said. “But I think this little old lady at a grocery place not far from here is willing to give me a job. So if you play your cards right you'll have a man with a job, Tetsu.”

Kuroo snorted, pulling his chair up as Bokuto threw himself in the chair across from him. Bokuto took the menu out of Kuroo's hands and grinned.

“I already thought that out, too,” He said. “Heard you're pretty in salmon. So, there's this ramen dish with salmon, right? How bout it?”

Kuroo shrugged; “You're paying.” Bokuto told the old lady that came to fill their order one bowl for the two of them. “Wait, just one bowl?”

“Truuuust me, Kuroo,” Bokuto said.

Kuroo narrowed his eyes when the bowl came, and Bokuto was already salivating. They mumbled a thank you for the meal before Bokuto's chopsticks were flying in to the bowl already to nab a piece of salmon. Kuroo growled under his breath; Owls vs Cats part two it seemed.

Kuroo had to blink though when Bokuto's chopsticks came up to his mouth. He grinned, far too charming for Kuroo's comfort.

“Say ahhh, Kuroo,” Bokuto snickered.

Kuroo sneered, breaking halfway into a grin as he opened his mouth and accepted the fish. Bokuto nodded and pulled back his chopsticks to feed himself. Kuroo blinked and looked down at the food. Holy shit.

“Holy shit,” Kuroo muttered.

Bokuto guffawed; “Told you didn't? Open you, Kuroo.”

They passed back and forth like that for a while, Bokuto feeding Kuroo and then fighting over some of the vegetables with their chopsticks on and off. Bokuto pressed a bunch of noodles to his mouth. He caught a look of what seemed to be an idea flashing over his face before Kuroo was accepting the food. Bokuto gathered up the ends of the noodles and shoved it into his mouth, soup flying everywhere and splashing a bit on Kuroo's face. Bokuto nearly inhaled his half, rising out of his seat and leaning into Kuroo's personal space like he always liked to do.

Kuroo wanted to laugh as he shook his head. Just as Bokuto's mouth came close he bit down and let the  bit of noodle connecting them break. Bokuto's disappointed face was almost worth it before Kuroo was biting off the tiny piece hanging out of his mouth and grinning far too smugly. Bokuto swallowed heavily and sat back on his chair, legs skidding on the floor. Bokuto blinked and let a large grin break out on his face.

Kuroo hummed and gathered up some more noodles himself and reaching over for Bokuto to bite into. Kuroo forced his eyes close this time, welcoming the sloppy pressure of Bokuto's lips and the share inhale through his nose as he parted from him. Kuroo wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, a terribly content smile on his face.

Kuroo would have liked to say he wasn't surprised when Bokuto took him by the hand when they finally left the restaurant, taking what looked like a cliché walk through the nearby park. Until Bokuto forcibly pulled him on his back and ran back to campus to intercept Oikawa and Iwaizumi's Sunday night practice to close out their date.

Yaku was just about to climb the stairs to his bunk when Kuroo came in, a dopey grin on his face. Yaku laughed lightly, resting an arm back on the bars to fix Kuroo with a look.

“Good then?” Yaku joked.

 “He's a real hoot,” Kuroo replied simply, rolling into his bed. He could almost hear Yaku's eyeroll. “But yeah. He's a keeper. We're officially dating now by the way.”

“About time,” Yaku said, and fell into his bed.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Original Here! ---> http://cheshire-ree.tumblr.com/post/142199767748/the-story-of-how-bokuto-and-kuroo-got-together
> 
> I was ranting out this to myself on twitter b/c thats what I do. Anyway, I’ve been stuck writing the Asahi chapter where he watches Shouyou and then I was thinking “How in the world did Bokuto and Kuroo meet in this AU”? And then it was lit “Bokuto told Kuroo he was going to pick him up but he lit meant he was going to pick him up and carries him to their eating spot and then they’re big nerds and do the Lady&theTramp thing but with ramen”. This was so much fun to write tbh.
> 
> A little backstory on our college kiddos:
> 
> Kuroo is an accounting major, he doesn’t join the volleyball team until the next semester because he promised his mama he’d focus on school before hand b/c she knows how much Kuroo looove volleyball and despite how good a student he is, she’s just worried he’ll get carried away. He’s a responsible guy dont get me wrong outside his terrible humor I think he probably has like, overbearing parents. Yaku is also an accounting major.
> 
> Bokuto has no track right now, but I headcanon him as being really good with the sciences. He’s considering biology as a major as he works part-time at Mrs. Sanada’s grocery store. His parents are just happy that he’s doing pretty good on his own (with Akaashi’s help ofc). He’s a pretty inspiring guy, too, so maybe philosophy LOL?
> 
> Ushiwaka is considering coaching. He takes education courses with Suga&Oikawa. Suga & Oikawa are studying to be teachers, with kindergarten or preschool in mind.
> 
> Daichi and Kiyoko are doing sports medicine & physical therapy. Iwaizumi wanted to go pro, but was studying alongside Daichi & Kiyoko and had to drop out for a while some time later on because he suddenly finds himself with a child……He’s planning on resuming studies soon.
> 
> Asahi is an arts major. He’s a webcomic artist. Akaashi is going for pediatrics.
> 
> I need to actually sit down and write out a timeline and concrete everything. Some things may be subject to change b/c tbh I’m winging everything LOL. I’ve tried to do chaptered things in the past and gotten rather far before burning out. But I’m forcing myself to commit to this one.
> 
> Feel free to drop me suggestions or your thoughts! I want to hear what you think or consider, too. I’m open to changing these if someone else has a better idea~ (with credit ofc).
> 
> Also how the hell do you spell barbeque properly b/c I refuse to believe it uses a c and not a q LOL. Well, I’ve been wrong before.


End file.
